by Cori Bonnell

The Bearded Rockskipper is what those odd fish/lizard/snake creatures are called. I had been combing the internet just to satisfy my curiosity. I can get a bit obsessed when it comes to figuring out why?, what? or how come? while traveling. I guess it’s why I travel because I will hopefully always be curious.

My walk along the shore in Grand Baie Mauritius turned into a marine biology expedition for this travel geek. Just what was that shiny, dark green creature hopping to and fro amongst its neighbors the sea urchin and fiddler crab. Of course, when I got back to my hotel and asked the innkeeper about it, it all got lost in translation (gave me a quizzical look) and he gave up and moved on to more imperative things. I can’t blame him since this was probably a discovery for him when he was 2 years old and something really not interesting him.

Experiences like this one and many others on the road exemplify the true meaning of traveling and how it makes an outsider look at an unfamiliar world with fresh eyes. Trying to rap my head around why locals live their lives the way they do, what the local version of the squirrel or minnow in this case is, what are the social norms and what’s considered acceptable behavior (don’t really like pissing any one-off), and understanding there are things that can’t be simply explained . This is what travel is to me. Always asking why or what is that?